Esoteric Development

Schmidt Number: S-1198

On-line since: 28th February, 2011

I

Inner Development

The concepts concerning the
super-sensible world and its relationship with the world of the senses
have been discussed here in a long series of lectures. It is only
natural that, again and again, the question should arise, “What
is the origin of knowledge concerning the super-sensible world?”
With this question or, in other words, with the question of the inner
development of man, we wish to occupy ourselves today.

The phrase “inner
development of man” here refers to the ascent of the human
being to capacities which must be acquired if he wishes to make
super-sensible insights his own. Now do not misunderstand the intent
of this lecture. This lecture will by no means postulate rules or
laws concerning general human morality, nor will it challenge
the general religion of the age. I must stress this because when
occultism is discussed the misunderstanding often arises that some
sort of general demands or fundamental moral laws, valid without
variation, are being established. This is not the case. This point
requires particular clarification in our age of standardization, when
differences between human beings are not at all acknowledged. Neither
should today's lecture be mistaken for a lecture concerning the
general fundamentals of the anthroposophic movement. Occultism
is not the same as anthroposophy. The Anthroposophical Society is not
alone in cultivating occultism, nor is this its only task. It could
even be possible for a person to join the Anthroposophical
Society and to avoid occultism altogether.

Among the inquiries which
are pursued within the Anthroposophical Society, in addition to
the field of general ethics, is also this field of occultism, which
includes those laws of existence which are hidden from the usual
sense observation in everyday human experience. By no means, however,
are these laws unrelated to everyday experience. “Occult”
means “hidden,” or “mysterious.” But it must
be stressed over and over that occultism is a matter in which certain
preconditions are truly necessary. Just as higher mathematics would
be incomprehensible to the simple peasant who had never before
encountered it, so is occultism incomprehensible to many people
today. Occultism ceases to be “occult,” however, when one
has mastered it. In this way, I have strictly defined the boundaries
of today's lecture. Therefore, no one can object — this
must be stressed in the light of the most manifold endeavors and of
the experience of millennia — that the demands of
occultism cannot be fulfilled, and that they contradict the
general culture. No one is expected to fulfill these demands. But if
someone requests that he be given convictions provided by occultism
and yet refuses to occupy himself with it, he is like a schoolboy who
wishes to create electricity in a glass rod, yet refuses to rub it.
Without friction, it will not become charged. This is similar
to the objection raised against the practice of occultism.

No one is exhorted to
become an occultist; one must come to occultism of one's own
volition. Whoever says that we do not need occultism will not need to
occupy himself with it. At this time, occultism does not appeal to
mankind in general. In fact, it is extremely difficult in the present
culture to submit to those rules of conduct which will open the
spiritual world.

Two prerequisites are
totally lacking in our culture. One is isolation, what spiritual
science calls “higher human solitude.” The other is
overcoming the egotism which, though largely unconscious, has become
a dominant characteristic of our time.

The absence of these two
prerequisites renders the path of inner development simply
unattainable. Isolation, or spiritual solitude, is very
difficult to achieve because life conditions tend to distract
and disperse, in brief to demand sense-involvement in the external.
There has been no previous culture in which people have lived with
such an involvement in the external. I beg you not to take what
I am saying as criticism, but simply as an objective
characterization.

Of course, he who speaks as
I do knows that this situation cannot be different, and that it
forms the basis for the greatest advantages and greatest achievements
of our time. But this is the reason that our time is so devoid of
super-sensible insight and that our culture is so devoid of
super-sensible influence. In other cultures — and they do
exist — the human being is in a position to cultivate the inner
life more and to withdraw from the influences of external life. Such
cultures offer a soil where inner life in the higher sense can
thrive. In the Oriental culture there exists what is called Yoga.
Those who live according to the rules of this teaching are called
yogis. A yogi is one who strives for higher spiritual knowledge, but
only after he has sought for himself a master of the super-sensible.
No one is able to proceed without the guidance of a master, or guru.
When the yogi has found such a guru, he must spend a considerable
part of the day, regularly, not irregularly, living totally within
his soul. All the forces that the yogi needs to develop are already
within his soul. They exist there as truly as electricity exists in
the glass rod before it is brought forth through friction. In order
to call forth the forces of the soul, methods of spiritual science
must be used which are the results of observations made over
millennia. This is very difficult in our time, which demands a
certain splintering of each individual struggling for existence. One
cannot arrive at a total inward composure; one cannot even arrive at
the concept of such composure. People are not sufficiently aware of
the deep solitude the yogi must seek. One must repeat the same matter
rhythmically with immense regularity, if only for a brief time
each day, in total separation from all usual concerns. It is
indispensable that all life usually surrounding the yogi cease
to exist and that his senses become unreceptive to all
impressions of the world around him. He must be able to make
himself deaf and dumb to his surroundings during the time which he
prescribes for himself. He must be able to concentrate to such
a degree — and he must acquire practice in this concentration
— that a cannon could be fired next to him without disturbing
his attention to his inner life. He must also become free of all
memory impressions, particularly those of everyday life.

Just think how exceedingly
difficult it is to bring about these conditions in our culture, how
even the concept of such isolation is lacking. This spiritual
solitude must be reached in such a way that the harmony, the total
equilibrium with the surrounding world, is never lost. But this
harmony can be lost exceedingly easily during such deep immersion in
one's inner life. Whoever goes more and more deeply inward must
at the same time be able to establish harmony with the external world
all the more clearly.

No hint of estrangement, of
distancing from external practical life, may arise in him lest he
stray from the right course. To a degree, then, it might be
impossible to distinguish his higher life from insanity. It truly is
a kind of insanity when the inner life loses its proper
relationship to the outer. Just imagine, for example, that you were
knowledgeable concerning our conditions on earth and that you
had all the experience and wisdom which may be gathered here. You
fall asleep in the evening, and in the morning you do not wake up on
Earth but on Mars. The conditions on Mars are totally different from
those on Earth; the knowledge that you have gathered on Earth is of
no use to you whatsoever. There is no longer harmony between
life within you and external life. You probably would find yourself
in a Martian insane asylum within an hour. A similar situation might
easily arise if the development of the internal life severs one's
connection with the external world. One must take strict care that
this does not happen. These are great difficulties in our
culture.

Egotism in relation to
inward soul properties is the first obstacle. Present humanity
usually takes no account of this. This egotism is closely connected
with the spiritual development of man. An important
prerequisite for spiritual development is not to seek it out of
egotism. Whoever is motivated by egotism cannot get very far.
But egotism in our time reaches deep into the innermost soul. Again
and again the objection is heard, “What use are all the
teachings of occultism, if I cannot experience them
myself?” Whoever starts from this presumption and cannot change
has little chance of arriving at higher development. One aspect of
higher development is a most intimate awareness of human community,
so that it is immaterial whether it is I or someone else having
the experience. Hence I must meet one who has a higher development
than I with unlimited love and trust. First, I must acquire this
consciousness, the consciousness of infinite trust toward my
fellow man when he says that he has experienced one thing or the
other. Such trust is a precondition for working together. Wherever
occult capacities are strongly brought into play, there exists
unlimited trust; there exists the awareness that a human being is a
personality in which a higher individuality lives. The first
basis, therefore, is trust and faith, because we do not seek the
higher self only in ourselves but also in our fellow men. Everyone
living around one exists in undivided unity in the inner kernel of
one's being.

On the basis of my lower
self I am separated from other humans. But as far as my higher self
is concerned — and that alone can ascend to the spiritual world
— I am no longer separated from my fellow men; I am
united with my fellow men; the one speaking to me out of higher
truths is actually my own self. I must get away completely from the
notion of difference between him and me. I must overcome totally the
feeling that he has an advantage over me. Try to live your way into
this feeling until it penetrates the most intimate fiber of your soul
and causes every vestige of egotism to disappear. Do this so
that the one further along the path than you truly stands before you
like your own self; then you have attained one of the prerequisites
for awakening higher spiritual life.

In situations where one
receives guidance for the occult life, sometimes quite erroneously
and confusedly, one may often hear that the higher self lives in the
human being, that he need only allow his inner man to speak and the
highest truth will thereby become manifest. Nothing is more
correct and, at the same time, less productive than this
assertion. Just try to let your inner self speak, and you will
see that, as a rule, no matter how much you fancy that your higher
self is making an appearance, it is the lower self that speaks. The
higher self is not found within us for the time being. We must seek
it outside of ourselves. We can learn a good deal from the person who
is further along than we are, since there the higher self is visible.
One's higher self can gain nothing from one's own egotistic
“I.” There where he now stands who is further along than
I am, there will I stand sometime in the future. I am truly
constituted to carry within myself the seed for what he already is.
But the paths to Olympus must first be illuminated before one can
follow them.

A feeling which may seem
unbelievable is the fundamental condition for all occult
development. It is mentioned in the various religions, and every
practical occultist with experience will confirm it. The
Christian religion describes it with the well-known sentence, , which
an occultist must understand completely, “Except ye become as
little children, ye shall not enter the kingdom of
heaven.” This sentence can be understood only by he who
has learned to revere in the highest sense. Suppose that in your
earliest youth you had heard about a venerable person, an individual
of whom you held the highest opinion, and now you are offered
the opportunity to meet this person. A sense of awe prevails in you
when the moment approaches that you will see this person for the
first time. There, standing at the gateway of this personality, you
might feel hesitant to touch the door handle and open it. When you
look up in this way to such a venerable personality, then you have
begun to grasp the feeling that Christianity intends by the statement
that one should become like little children in order to enter the
kingdom of heaven. Whether or not the subject of this veneration is
truly worthy of it is not really important. What matters is the
capacity to look up to something with a veneration that comes from
the innermost heart.

This feeling of veneration
is the elevating force, raising us to higher spheres of super-sensible
life. Everyone seeking the higher life must write into his soul with
golden letters this law of the occult world. Development must start
from this basic soul-mood; without this feeling, nothing can be
achieved. Next, a person seeking inner development must understand
clearly that he is doing something of immense importance to the human
being. What he seeks is no more nor less than a new birth, and that
needs to be taken in a literal sense. The higher soul of man is to be
born. Just as man in his first birth was born out of the deep inner
foundations of existence, and as he emerged into the light of
the sun, so does he who seeks inner development step forth from the
physical light of the sun into a higher spiritual light. Something is
being born in him which rests as deeply in most human beings as the
unborn child rests in the mother.

Without being aware of the
full significance of this fact, one cannot understand what occult
development means. The higher soul, resting deep within human nature
and interwoven with it, is brought forth. As man stands before
us in everyday life, his higher and lower natures are intermingled,
and that is fortunate for everyday life. Many persons among us would
exhibit evil, negative qualities except that there lives along with
the lower nature a higher one which exerts a balancing influence.
This intermingling can be compared with mixing a yellow with a blue
liquid in a glass. The result is a green liquid in which blue and
yellow can no longer be distinguished. So also is the lower nature in
man mingled with the higher, and the two cannot be distinguished.
Just as you might extract the blue liquid from the green by a
chemical process, so that only the yellow remains and the unified
green is separated into a complete duality, so the lower and higher
natures separate in occult development. One draws the lower nature
out of the body like a sword from the scabbard, which then remains
alone. The lower nature comes forth appearing almost gruesome. When
it was still mingled with the higher nature, nothing was noticeable.
But once separated, all evil, negative properties come into view.
People who previously appeared benevolent often become argumentative
and jealous. This characteristic had existed earlier in the lower
nature, but was guided by the higher. You can observe this in many
who have been guided along an abnormal path. A person may readily
become a liar when he is introduced into the spiritual world, because
the capacity to distinguish between the true and the false is lost
especially easily. Therefore, strictest training of the personal
character is a necessary parallel to occult training. What
history tells us about the saints and their temptations is not
legend but literal truth.

He who wants to develop
towards the higher world on any path is readily prone to such
temptations unless he can subdue everything that meets him with a
powerful strength of character and the highest morality. Not only do
lust and passions grow — that is not even the case so much
— but opportunities also increase. This seems miraculous.
As through a miracle, the person ascending into the higher worlds
finds previously hidden opportunities for evil lurking around him. In
every aspect of life a demon lies in wait for him, ready to lead him
astray. He now sees what he has not seen before. As through a spell,
the division within his own being charms forth such opportunities
from the hidden areas of life. Therefore, a very determined shaping
of the character is an indispensable foundation for the so-called
white magic, the school of occult development which leads man into
the higher worlds in a good, true, and genuine way. Every
practical occultist will tell you that no one should dare to
step through the narrow portal, as the entrance to occult development
is called, without practicing these properties again and again. They
build the necessary foundation for occult life.

First man must develop the
ability to distinguish in every situation throughout his life what is
unimportant from what is important, that is, what is perishable from
the imperishable. This requirement is easy to indicate but
difficult to carry out. As Goethe says, it is easy, but what is easy
is hard. Look, for instance, at a plant or an object. You will learn
to understand that everything has an important and an unimportant
side, and that man usually takes interest in the unimportant, in the
relationship of the matter to himself, or in some other subordinate
aspect. He who wishes to become an occultist must gradually develop
the habit of seeing and seeking in each thing its essence. For
instance, when he sees a clock he must have an interest in its laws.
He must be able to take it apart into its smallest detail and to
develop a feeling for the laws of the clock. A mineralogist will
arrive at considerable knowledge about a quartz-crystal simply
by looking at it. The occultist, however, must be able to take
the stone in his hand and to feel in a living way something akin to
the following monologue: “In a certain sense you, the crystal,
are beneath humanity, but in a certain sense you are far above
humanity. You are beneath humanity because you cannot make for
yourself a picture of man by means of concepts, and because you
do not feel. You cannot explain or think, you do not live, but
you have an advantage over mankind. You are pure within
yourself, have no desire, no wishes, no lust. Every human, every
living being has wishes, desires, lusts. You do not have them. You
are complete and without wishes, satisfied with what has come to you,
an example for man, with which he will have to unite his other
qualities.”

If the occultist can feel
this in all its depth, then he has grasped what the stone can tell
him. In this way man can draw out of everything something full of
meaning. When this has become a habit for him, when he separates the
important from the unimportant, he has acquired another
feeling essential to the occultist. Then he must connect his
own life with that which is important. In this people err
particularly easily in our time. They believe that their place
in life is not proper for them. How often people are inclined to say,
“My lot has put me in the wrong place. I am,” let us say,
“a postal clerk. If I were put in a different place, I could
give people high ideas, great teaching,” and so on. The
mistake which these people make is that they do not enter into
the significant aspect of their occupation. If you see in me
something of importance because I can talk to the people here, then
you do not see the importance of your own life and work. If the
mail-carriers did not carry the mail, the whole postal traffic would
stop, and much work already achieved by others would be in vain.

Hence everyone in his place
is of exceeding importance for the whole, and none is higher than the
other. Christ has attempted to demonstrate this most beautifully in
the thirteenth chapter of the Gospel of John, with the words,
“The servant is not greater than his lord; neither he that is
sent greater than he that sent him.” These words were spoken
after the Master had washed the feet of the Apostles. He wanted to
say, “What would I be without my Apostles? They must be there
so that I can be there in the world, and I must pay them tribute by
lowering myself before them and washing their feet.” This
is one of the most significant allusions to the feeling that the
occultist must have for what is important. What is important in
the inward sense must not be confused with the externally important.
This must be strictly observed.

In addition, we must
develop a series of qualities. [For another
description of these exercises, see
Occult Science, an Outline
(Anthroposophic Press, Spring Valley, New York, 1972)
Chapter 5, p. 283.] To
begin with, we must become masters over our thoughts, and
particularly our train of thought. This is called control of
thoughts. Just think how thoughts whirl about in the soul of man,
how they flit about like will-o'-the wisps. Here one impression
arises, there another, and each one changes one's thoughts. It is not
true that we govern our thoughts; rather our thoughts govern us
totally. We must advance to the ability of steeping ourselves in one
specific thought at a certain time of the day and not allow any other
thought to enter and disturb our soul. In this way we ourselves hold
the reins of thought life for a time.

The second quality is to
find a similar relationship to our actions, that is, to exercise
control over our actions. Here it is necessary to undertake
actions, at least occasionally, which are not initiated by anything
external. That which is initiated by our station in life, our
profession, or our situation does not lead us more deeply into higher
life. Higher life depends on personal matters, such as resolving to
do something springing totally from one's own initiative even
if it is an absolutely insignificant matter. All other actions
contribute nothing to the higher life.

The third quality to be
striven for is even-temperedness. People fluctuate back and
forth between joy and sorrow. One moment they are beside themselves
with joy, the next they are unbearably sad. Thus, people allow
themselves to be rocked on the waves of life, on joy or sorrow. But
they must reach equanimity and steadiness. Neither the greatest
sorrow nor the greatest joy must unsettle their composure. They must
become steadfast and even-tempered.

Fourth is the
understanding for every being. Nothing expresses more
beautifully what it means to understand every being than the legend
which is handed down to us, not by the Gospel, but by a Persian
story. Jesus was walking across a field with his disciples, and on
the way they found a decaying dog. The animal looked horrible.
Jesus stopped and cast an admiring look upon it, saying, “What
beautiful teeth the animal has!” Jesus found within the ugly
the one beautiful aspect. Strive at all times to approach what is
wonderful in every object of outer reality, and you will see that
everything contains an aspect that can be affirmed. Do as
Christ did when he admired the beautiful teeth on the dead dog. This
course will lead you to the great ability to tolerate, and to an
understanding of every thing and of every being.

The fifth quality is
complete openness towards everything new that meets us. Most
people judge new things which meet them by the old which they already
know. If anyone comes to tell them something new, they immediately
respond with an opposing opinion. But we must not confront a new
communication immediately with our own opinion. We must rather
be on the alert for possibilities of learning something new. And
learn we can, even from a small child. Even if one were the wisest
person, one must be willing to hold back one's own judgment, and to
listen to others. We must develop this ability to listen, for it will
enable us to meet matters with the greatest possible openness. In
occultism, this is called faith. It is the power not to weaken
through opposition the impression made by the new.

The sixth quality is that
which everyone receives once he has developed the first five. It is
inner harmony. The person who has the other qualities also has
inner harmony. In addition, it is necessary for a person
seeking occult development to develop his feeling for freedom to the
highest degree. That feeling for freedom enables him to seek within
himself the center of his own being, to stand on his own two feet, so
that he will not have to ask everyone what he should do and so that
he can stand upright and act freely. This also is a quality which one
needs to acquire.

If man has developed these
qualities within himself, then he stands above all the dangers
arising from the division within his nature. Then the properties of
his lower nature can no longer affect him; he can no longer stray
from the path. Therefore, these qualities must be formed with the
greatest precision. Then comes the occult life, whose
expression depends on a steady rhythm being carried into
life.

The phrase “carrying
rhythm into life” expresses the unfolding of this faculty. If
you observe nature, you will find in it a certain rhythm. You will,
of course, expect that the violet blooms every year at the same time
in spring, that the crops in the field and the grapes on the vine
will ripen at the same time each year. This rhythmical sequence of
phenomena exists everywhere in nature. Everywhere there is
rhythm, everywhere repetition in regular sequence. As you ascend from
the plant to beings with higher development, you see the rhythmic
sequence decreasing. Yet even in the higher stages of animal
development one sees how all functions are ordered
rhythmically. At a certain time of the year, animals acquire certain
functions and capabilities. The higher a being evolves, the more life
is given over into the hands of the being itself, and the more these
rhythms cease. You must know that the human body is only one member
of man's being. There is also the etheric body, then the astral body,
and, finally, the higher members which form the basis for the
others.

The physical body is highly
subject to the same rhythm that governs outer nature. Just as plant
and animal life, in its external form, takes its course rhythmically,
so does the life of the physical body. The heart beats rhythmically,
the lungs breathe rhythmically, and so forth. All this proceeds so
rhythmically because it is set in order by higher powers, by the
wisdom of the world, by that which the scriptures call the Holy
Spirit. The higher bodies, particularly the astral body, have been, I
would like to say, abandoned by these higher spiritual forces, and
have lost their rhythm. Can you deny that your activity relating to
wishes, desires, and passions is irregular, that it can in no way
compare with the regularity ruling the physical body? He who learns
to know the rhythm inherent in physical nature increasingly finds in
it an example for spirituality. If you consider the heart, this
wonderful organ with the regular beat and innate wisdom, and you
compare it with the desires and passions of the astral body which
unleash all sorts of actions against the heart, you will recognize
how its regular course is influenced detrimentally by passion.
However, the functions of the astral body must become as rhythmical
as those of the physical body.

I want to mention something
here which will seem grotesque to most people. This is the
matter of fasting. Awareness of the significance of fasting has
been totally lost. Fasting is enormously significant, however, for
creating rhythm in our astral body. What does it mean to fast? It
means to restrain the desire to eat and to block the astral body in
relation to this desire. He who fasts blocks the astral body and
develops no desire to eat. This is like blocking a force in a
machine. The astral body becomes inactive then, and the whole rhythm
of the physical body with its innate wisdom works upward into the
astral body to rhythmicize it. Like the imprint of a seal, the
harmony of the physical body impresses itself upon the astral body.
It would transfer much more permanently if the astral body were not
continuously being made irregular by desires, passions, and
wishes, including spiritual desires and wishes.

It is more necessary for
the man of today to carry rhythm into all spheres of higher life than
it was in earlier times. Just as rhythm is implanted in the physical
body by God, so man must make his astral body rhythmical. Man must
order his day for himself. He must arrange it for his astral body as
the spirit of nature arranges it for the lower realms. In the
morning, at a definite time, one must undertake one spiritual action;
a different one must be undertaken at another time, again to be
adhered to regularly, and yet another one in the evening. These
spiritual exercises must not be chosen arbitrarily, but must be
suitable for the development of the higher life. This is one method
for taking life in hand and for keeping it in hand. So set a time for
yourself in the morning when you concentrate. You must adhere to this
hour. You must establish a kind of calm so that the occult master in
you may awaken. You must meditate about a great thought content that
has nothing to do with the external world, and let this thought
content come to life completely. A short time is enough, perhaps a
quarter of an hour. Even five minutes are sufficient if more time is
not available. But it is worthless to do these exercises irregularly.
Do them regularly so that the activity of the astral body becomes as
regular as a clock. Only then do they have value. The astral body
will appear completely different if you do these exercises
regularly. Sit down in the morning and do these exercises, and
the forces I described will develop. But, as I said, it must be done
regularly, for the astral body expects that the same process will
take place at the same time each day, and it falls into disorder if
this does not happen. At least the intent towards order must exist.
If you rhythmicize your life in this manner, you will see success in
not too long a time; that is, the spiritual life hidden from man for
the time being will become manifest to a certain degree.

As a rule, human life
alternates among four states. The first state is the perception of
the external world. You look around with your senses and perceive the
external world. The second is what we may call imagination or the
life of mental images which is related to, or even part of, dream
life. There man does not have his roots in his surroundings, but is
separated from them. There he has no realities within himself, but at
the most reminiscences. The third state is dreamless sleep, in which
man has no consciousness of his ego at all. In the fourth state he
lives in memory. This is different from perception. It is
already something remote, spiritual. If man had no memory, he could
uphold no spiritual development.

The inner life begins to
develop by means of inner contemplation and meditation. Thus,
the human being sooner or later perceives that he no longer dreams in
a chaotic manner; he begins to dream in the most significant
way, and remarkable things reveal themselves in his dreams, which he
gradually begins to recognize as manifestations of spiritual
beings. Naturally the trivial objection might easily be raised that
this is nothing but a dream and therefore of no consequence. However,
should someone discover the dirigible in his dream and then
proceed to build it, the dream would simply have shown the truth.
Thus an idea can be grasped in an other-than-usual manner. Its
truthfulness must then be judged by the fact that it can be realized.
We must become convinced of its inner truth from outside.

The next step in spiritual
life is to comprehend truth by means of our own qualities and of
guiding our dreams consciously. When we begin to guide our
dreams in a regular manner, then we are at the stage where truth
becomes transparent for us. The first stage is called
“material cognition.” For this, the object must lie
before us. The next stage is “imaginative cognition.” It
is developed through meditation, that is through shaping life
rhythmically. Achieving this is laborious. But once it is achieved,
the time arrives when there is no longer a difference between
perception in the usual life and perception in the super-sensible.
When we are among the things of our usual life, that is, in the sense
world, and we change our spiritual state, then we experience
continuously the spiritual, the super-sensible world, but only if we
have sufficiently trained ourselves. This happens as soon as we are
able to be deaf and dumb to the sense world, to remember nothing of
the everyday world, and still to retain a spiritual life within us.
Then our dream-life begins to take on a conscious form. If we are
able to pour some of this into our everyday life, then the next
capacity arises, rendering the soul-qualities of the beings around us
perceptible. Then we see not only the external aspect of things, but
also the inner, hidden essential kernel of things, of plants, of
animals, and of man. I know that most people will say that these are
actually different things. True, these are always different things
from those a person sees who does not have such senses. The third
stage is that in which a consciousness, which is as a rule completely
empty, begins to be enlivened by continuity of consciousness. The
continuity appears on its own. The person is then no longer
unconscious during sleep. During the time in which he used to
sleep, he now experiences the spiritual world.

Of what does sleep usually
consist? The physical body lies in bed, and the astral body lives in
the super-sensible world. In this super-sensible world, you are taking
a walk. As a rule, a person with the type of disposition which is
typical today cannot withdraw very far from his body. If one applies
the rules of spiritual science, organs can be developed in the
astral body as it wanders during sleep — just as the physical
body has organs — which allow one to become conscious during
sleep. The physical body would be blind and deaf if it had no eyes or
ears, and the astral body walking at night is blind and deaf
for the same reason, because it does not yet have eyes and ears. But
these organs are developed through meditation which provides
the means for training these organs. This meditation must then
be guided in a regular way. It is being led so that the human body is
the mother and the spirit of man is the father. The physical human
body, as we see it before us, is a mystery in every one of its parts
and, in fact, each member is related in a definite but
mysterious way to a part of the astral body. These are matters which
the occultist knows. For instance, the point in the physical body
lying between the eyebrows belongs to a certain organ in the astral
organism. When the occultist indicates how one must direct thoughts,
feelings, and sensations to this point between the eyebrows through
connecting something formed in the physical body with the
corresponding part of the astral body, the result will be a certain
sensation in the astral body. But this must be practiced
regularly, and one must know how to do it. Then the astral body
begins to form its members. From a lump, it grows to be an organism
in which organs are formed. I have described the astral sense organs
in the periodical, Lucifer Gnosis. They are also called Lotus
flowers. By means of special word sequences, these Lotus flowers are
cultivated. Once this has occurred, the human being is able to
perceive the spiritual world. This is the same world he enters when
passing through the portal of death, a final contradiction to
Hamlet's “The undiscover'd country from whose bourn no traveler
returns.”

So it is possible to go, or
rather to slip, from the sense world into the super-sensible world and
to live there as well as here. That does not mean life in never-never
land, but life in a realm that clarifies and explains life in our
realm. Just as the usual person who has not studied electricity would
not understand all the wonderful workings in a factory powered by
electricity, so the average person does not understand the
occurrences in the spiritual world. The visitor at the factory will
lack understanding as long as he remains ignorant of the laws of
electricity. So also will man lack understanding in the realm of the
spirit as long as he does not know the laws of the spiritual. There
is nothing in our world that is not dependent on the spiritual world
at every moment. Everything surrounding us is the external expression
of the spiritual world. There is no materiality. Everything
material is condensed spirit. For the person looking into the
spiritual world, the whole material, sense-perceptible world, the
world in general, becomes spiritualized. As ice melts into water
through the effect of the sun, so everything sense-perceptible
melts into something spiritual within the soul which looks into the
spiritual world. Thus, the fundament of the world gradually manifests
before the spiritual eye and the spiritual ear.

The life that man learns to
know in this manner is actually the spiritual life he carries within
himself all along. But he knows nothing of it because he does not
know himself before developing organs for the higher world. Imagine
possessing the characteristics you have at this time, yet being
without sense-organs. You would know nothing of the world around you,
would have no understanding of the physical body, and yet you would
belong to the physical world. So the soul of man belongs to the
spiritual world, but does not know it because it does not hear or
see. Just as our body is drawn out of the forces and materials of the
physical world, so is our soul drawn out of the forces and materials
of the spiritual world. We do not recognize ourselves within
ourselves, but only within our surroundings. As we cannot perceive a
heart or a brain — even by means of X-ray — without
seeing it in other people through our sense organs (it is only the
eyes that can see the heart), so we truly cannot see or hear our own
soul without perceiving it with spiritual organs in the surrounding
world. You can recognize yourself only by means of your surroundings.
In truth there exists no inner knowledge, no self-examination; there
is only one knowledge, one revelation of the life around us
through the organs of the physical as well as the spiritual. We are a
part of the worlds around us, of the physical, the soul, and the
spiritual worlds. We learn from the physical if we have physical
organs, from the spiritual world and from all souls if we have
spiritual and soul organs. There is no knowledge but knowledge of the
world.

It is vain and empty
idleness for man to “brood” within himself, believing
that it is possible to progress simply by looking into himself. Man
will find the God in himself if he awakens the divine organs within
himself and finds his higher divine self in his surroundings, just as
he finds his lower self solely by means of using his eyes and ears.
We perceive ourselves clearly as physical beings by means of
intercourse with the sense world, and we perceive ourselves clearly
in relation to the spiritual world by developing spiritual
senses. Development of the inner man means opening oneself to the
divine life around us.

Now you will understand
that it is essential that he who ascends to the higher world
undergoes, to begin with, an immense strengthening of his character.
Man can experience on his own the characteristics of the sense
world because his senses are already opened. This is possible because
a benevolent divine spirit, who has seen and heard in the physical
world, stood by man in the most ancient times, before man could see
and hear, and opened man's eyes and ears. It is from just such beings
that man must learn at this time to see spiritually, from beings
already able to do what he still has to learn. We must have a guru
who can tell us how we should develop our organs, who will tell us
what he has done in order to develop these organs. He who wishes to
guide must have acquired one fundamental quality. This is
unconditional truthfulness. This same quality is also a main
requirement for the student. No one may train to become an occultist
unless this fundamental quality of unconditional truthfulness has
been previously cultivated.

When facing sense
experience, one can test what is being said. When I tell you
something about the spiritual world, however, you must have trust
because you are not far enough to be able to confirm the information.
He who wishes to be a guru must have become so truthful that it is
impossible for him to take lightly such statements concerning
the spiritual world or the spiritual life. The sense world corrects
errors immediately by its own nature, but in the spiritual world we
must have these guidelines within ourselves. We must be
strictly trained, so that we are not forced to use the outer world
for controls, but only our inner self. We are only able to gain this
control by acquiring already in this world the strictest
truthfulness. Therefore, when the Anthroposophical Society began to
present some of the basic teachings of occultism to the world, it had
to adopt the principle: there is no law higher than truth. Very
few people understand this principle. Most are satisfied if they can
say they have the conviction that something is true, and then if it
is wrong, they will simply say that they were mistaken. The occultist
cannot rely on his subjective honesty. There he is on the wrong
track. He must always be in consonance with the facts of the external
world, and any experience that contradicts these facts must be seen
as an error or a mistake. The question of who is at fault for the
error ceases to be important to the occultist. He must be in
absolute harmony with the facts in life. He must begin to feel
responsible in the strictest sense for every one of his assertions.
Thus he trains himself in the unconditional certainty that he must
have for himself and for others if he wishes to be a spiritual
guide.

So you see that I needed to
indicate to you today a series of qualities and methods. We will have
to speak about these again in order to add the higher concepts. It
may seem to you that these things are too intimate to discuss with
others, that each soul has to come to grips with them on its own
terms, and that they are possibly unsuitable for reaching the great
destination which should be reached, namely the entrance into
the spiritual world. This entrance will definitely be achieved by
those who tread the path I have characterized.

When? One of the most
outstanding participants in the theosophical movement, Subba Row, who
died some time ago, has spoken fittingly about this. Replying to the
question of how long it would take, he said, “Seven
years, perhaps also seven times seven years, perhaps even seven
incarnations, perhaps only seven hours.” It all depends
on what the human being brings with himself into life. We may meet a
person who seems to be very stupid, but who has brought with himself
a concealed higher life that needs only to be brought out. Most human
beings these days are much further than it seems, and more people
would know about this if the materialism of our conditions and of our
time would not drive them back into the inner life of the soul. A
large percentage of today's human beings was previously much further
advanced. Whether that which is within them will come forth depends
on many factors. But it is possible to give some help. Suppose you
have before you a person who was highly developed in his earlier
incarnation, but now has an undeveloped brain. An undeveloped brain
may at times conceal great spiritual faculties. But if he can be
taught the usual everyday abilities, it may happen that the inner
spirituality also comes forth.

Another important factor is
the environment in which a person lives. The human being is a
mirror-image of his surroundings in a most significant way.
Suppose that a person is a highly developed personality, but lives in
surroundings that awaken and develop certain prejudices with such a
strong effect that the higher talents cannot come forth. Unless such
a person finds someone who can draw out these abilities, they will
remain hidden.

I have been able to give
only a few indications to you about this matter. After Christmas,
however, we will speak again about further and deeper things. I
especially wanted to awaken in you this one understanding, that the
higher life is not schooled in a tumultuous way, but rather quite
intimately, in the deepest soul, and that the great day when
the soul awakens and enters into the higher life actually arrives
like the thief in the night. The development towards the higher life
leads man into a new world, and when he has entered this new world,
then he sees the other side of existence, so to speak; then
what has previously been hidden for him reveals itself. Maybe not
everyone can do this; maybe only a few can do it, one might say to
oneself. But that must not keep one from at least starting on the way
that is open to everyone, namely to hear about the higher worlds. The
human being is called to live in community, and he who secludes
himself cannot arrive at a spiritual life. But it is a seclusion in a
stronger sense if he says, “I do not believe this, this does
not relate to me; this may be valid for the after-life.” For
the occultist this has no validity. It is an important
principle for the occultist to consider other human beings as
true manifestations of his own higher self, because he knows then
that he must find the others in himself. There is a delicate
distinction between these two sentences: “To find the others in
oneself,” and “To find oneself in the others.” In
the higher sense it means, “This is you.” And in the
highest sense it means to recognize oneself in the world and to
understand that saying of the poet which I cited some weeks ago in a
different connection: “One was successful. He lifted the veil
of the goddess at Sais. But what did he see? Miracle of miracles! He
saw himself.” To find oneself — not in egotistical
inwardness, but selflessly in the world without — that is true
recognition of the self.